Darkvision - Bruce R. Cordell [114]
She spotted a free shadow eft! She shuddered, remembering again the sea passage across the Golden Water.
Each of the loosed creatures bore a violet-flaring Celestial Nadir crystal, some on cords, others pierced directly into loathsome flesh.
The cluster of Pandorym-controlled monsters stood poised and dangerous, guarding that which lay at the cache's center.
The top edge of a canister ten paces in diameter peeked just above the floor's surface, like a dais. The canister was only partially unjacketed from its silo. Ususi saw that the mechanical locks that once kept the container secured were only partly engaged. Worse, several lines of protection inlaid with Celestial Nadir crystal across the canister's lid were chipped and broken. The canister wasn't entirely free of its storage silo, and the bulk of it still languished in its cavity.
But for the thing sealed within, the slender gap in its cage was enough.
A whirling scab of lightlessness, as perfectly black as Ususi's most terrifying childhood dream of the dark, streamed from the narrow gap in the floor. The darkness hovered, straining and pulling, but didn't move more than a few feet from the canister from which it emerged, as if tethered.
Ususi called upon her borrowed percipience and gazed into the dark.
Pandorym was there.
If not in body, at least in purpose. It saw her and saw that its dark hid no secrets from her. In unison, every servitor intoned, "I require the keystone. Relinquish it, and I may spare your home."
Ususi's percipience pierced even to the center of Pandorym's darkness. There, a circular gateway yawned, suspended several feet in the air. Ususi gasped when she recognized the streets of Deep Imaskar visible through the opening. The wide avenues, the tenement pillars, library spires… burning. Silhouetted in the flames, dark creatures moved to and fro, limned with violet malevolence.
The wizard of Deep Imaskar began uttering her most potent spells, suspecting they wouldn't be enough.
* * * * *
Kiril advanced into the milk white chamber. Angul burned in her grip. A gruesome multitude opposed her, each suffused with a trickle of power from the demi-entity Pandorym. To her left, the young man with the crystal arm matched her stride, his arm shining with its own light.
The blade spoke in her mind. These creatures, and their master, are kin to the horrors we are pledged to destroy.
The swordswoman ground her teeth and took a practice swipe with the Cerulean Blade. Angul scattered radiant fire in his arc.
The blade instructed her. Whether they are abolethic horrors or evil unaligned, here lie abominations, and thus their existence is forfeit.
The sword's anger burned brighter, and the certitude of his purpose steeled Kiril's posture. More powerful than any drunken dream or induced high, Angul engulfed her in absolute conviction. She didn't understand Pandorym's origin, but with Angul's influence pounding through her, she knew beyond certainty that it and its servitors deserved no mercy, nor quarter, nor even promise of redemption.
Kiril smiled, advancing.
* * * * *
Running into the chamber, Warian quickly evaluated what opposed them. Each bore the element of the Datharathis' claim to fame-the damned crystal. Here was where Shaddon's quest for wealth had taken him, and despite every warning, here he'd allowed his desire for power to subvert his reason. This damned chamber was where Warian's grandfather had given up his soul.
The Imaskari wizard, chanting and gesticulating, stood to Warian's left. Farther in and ahead of her, the vengeance taker jerked an ancient weapon from a container. Nearing Warian on his right, the elf with the burning blade advanced. A glance back showed him the earth elemental at the rear. He saw Zel peeking from